Abstract
For the East Central European Countries (ECE), the membership in the European Union also meant an entry into the foreign aid donor community. To understand the international development policy change in over a decade and a policy divergence among the ECE countries that have started from relatively similar situations, this article offers the case study of Lithuania and the analysis of domestic policy actors, namely the non-governmental development organizations (NGDOs) as one of the policy change facilitating factors. It provides an empirically-rich account of how Lithuanian NGDOs participate in the national foreign aid policymaking and explains factors that affect Lithuanian NGDOs’ capacity to influence government decisions. Szent-Ivanyi’s and Lightfoot’s theoretical model guided the analysis of the Lithuanian NGDOs umbrella organisations composition and power relations, their organizational capacities, foreign donor assistance and attitudes of the state actors. The article concludes the limited, yet increasing Lithuanian NGDOs’ role in shaping Lithuanian foreign aid policies, as undermined as they are by the chronic lack of resources to fund advocacy from national sources and the dependency on the EU project-based funding. Consequently, these circumstances constrain the NGDO Platforms’ focus mostly on the EU development agenda and therefore mimic the European NGO networks’ policy agenda. The lack of capacities among the NGDOs to adapt a European policy agenda to the national foreign aid policy reality makes it of limited relevance to the policy makers domestically.
Highlights
Since the so-called ‘non-governmental organization (NGO) decade’ (1980’ies) literature on nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in international development has been growing focusing on their increased prominence as policy actors,[1] viewing them as prime facilitators of the civil society[2] or reflecting critically how international donor lead democratization strategies equating NGOs with the civil society in the post-communist East Central European (ECE) countries[3] resulted in mushrooming NGOs, many dependent on donor funding, unrooted in grassroots and pursuing donor interests instead.[4]
To understand the international development policy change in over a decade and a policy divergence among the European Countries (ECE) countries that have started from relatively similar situations, this article offers the case study of Lithuania and the analysis of domestic policy actors, namely the non-governmental development organizations (NGDOs) as one of the policy change facilitating factors
It provides an empirically-rich account of how Lithuanian NGDOs participate in the national foreign aid policymaking and explains factors that affect Lithuanian NGDOs’ capacity to influence government decisions
Summary
Since the so-called ‘NGO decade’ (1980’ies) literature on nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in international development has been growing focusing on their increased prominence as policy actors,[1] viewing them as prime facilitators of the civil society[2] or reflecting critically how international donor lead democratization strategies equating NGOs with the civil society in the post-communist East Central European (ECE) countries[3] resulted in mushrooming NGOs, many dependent on donor funding, unrooted in grassroots and pursuing donor interests instead.[4]. Despite the growing recognition of the NGDO sector in the ECE countries’ foreign aid policymaking, to date there has been little indepth analysis with the notable exceptions of studies conducted by Szent-Ivanyi and Lightfoot,[13] Bučar et al.,[14] Chimiak,[15] whereas Lithuanian international development policy and actors affecting the policy process remain generally underresearched.[16] this paper offers an empirically rich account of how Lithuanian nongovernmental development organizations (NGDOs)[17] participate in. Szent-Ivanyi B., Lightfoot S., “Determinants of Civil Society Influence: The Case of International Development and Humanitarian NGOs in the Czech Republic and Hungary,” Comparative European Politics, 2014, p. After the analysis of the Lithuanian NGDO Platform’s key advocacy asks, factors that define limited NGDOs role in the policy process are discussed and summarized in the concluding remarks
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